Singability: Moderate
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STLT#356, Will You Seek in Far-Off Places?
Among the things I have learned in almost a year of doing this practice is that I am sometimes the outlier – sometimes I see something in a hymn others don’t see that makes me anxious or angry or bored. I know some of it is that I do this before the coffee’s kicked in,… Continue reading
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STLT#354, We Laugh, We Cry
This is a very long song. I suppose it has to be, given that it’s about life, death, and the whole schmear. But it is a long song, made longer by accompanists who drag it out – and lordy, there seems to be a compulsion amongst some of our accompanists to draaaaag thiiiiiis ooooone ouuuuuut… Continue reading
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STLT#352, Find a Stillness
I love this prayer. Seriously, this meditative, prayerful hymn – lyrics by Carl Seaburg, set to a Transylvanian folk tune – is absolutely in my top ten list. I love the haunting, minor key of the tune as well as the phrasing. Some might say the third phrase is too high, but that’s what transposition… Continue reading
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STLT#347, Gather the Spirit
This hymn almost got ruined for me in 2009. That spring, Saratoga Springs’ minister, Linda Hoddy, went on sabbatical, leaving a congregation well prepared to hold the fort down. As chair of the worship committee, I was also on the sabbatical team, and after a fall spent ensuring we had all our ducks in a… Continue reading
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STLT#342, O Slowly, Slowly, They Return
I feel like an apostate for saying this, but I do not care for this hymn. Now let me be clear: I like the tune (an initially tricky Swiss folk tune called Solothurn). And I like Wendell Berry’s poetry. And I don’t even mind the two together – they seem to fit well, with some musical… Continue reading
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STLT#341, O World, Thou Choosest Not the Better Part
I am in a Lichtenstein painting: “Oh no! I forgot to read George Santayana!” And I’m a bit embarrassed, largely because he wrote about spirituality and aesthetics, and this is the area of my ministry and while God knows I have read a ton of literature in my area of ministry, how is it I’ve never read… Continue reading
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STLT#337, Have I Not Known
I am in Peterborough, New Hampshire, preparing to lead a retreat with dear friend and colleague Diana McLean. And as I was preparing to write today, I waxed a little poetic about the Blake poem this hymn tune (Jerusalem, by Charles H.H. Parry) was written for. And I burst into tears. Like, not just a… Continue reading
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STLT#331, Life Is the Greatest Gift of All
Welcome to Hymn By Hymn After Dark! Sorry, there’s no sexy R&B played by Venus Flytrap, or suggestive storylines, or anything anywhere near close to that. I’m in a tshirt and leggings, hair a mess, a Stuff You Should Know podcast on my phone. But it’s dark! And it has been a long day, since… Continue reading
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STLT#329, Life Has Loveliness to Sell
I’m just gonna say right up front that for all of my belief in beauty and its role in revealing truth and inspiring connection to Mystery, I dislike the premise of this hymn. The premise – that loveliness costs, that the spiritual and inspirational are currency, that this entire piece is set in a capitalist… Continue reading
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STLT#328, I Sought the Wood in Summer
Let’s not kid ourselves: Willa Cather could write. This lyric, from a longer poem “I Sought the World in Winter” is a graceful meditation on the beauty of nature: I sought the wood in summer when every twig was green; the rudest boughs were tender, and buds were pink between. Light-fingered aspens trembled in fitful… Continue reading
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links
Learn more about my ministry at The Art of Meaning
Read my thoughts about congregational life at Hold My Chalice
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